


The dog

by CatelynStark956



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:53:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28841934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatelynStark956/pseuds/CatelynStark956
Summary: The Starks get a dog and initially Catelyn is not happy at all with it. But she comes around, to say the least.
Relationships: Catelyn Stark/Ned Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	The dog

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VPABA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VPABA/gifts).



> I started writing this several months ago, and now I finally got myself to finish it. It doesn't really have a plot, it's just Stark fluff. Or the story of the unexpected friendship between a Cat and a dog

The kids had promised so sweetly that they would take care of it all on their own and that she would barely notice that it was there. She had always been more of a cat person, if truth be told, so she wasn’t happy with it all. Perhaps that had been unavoidable considering the nickname that had been given to her.

But Ned had gone on and on about how it would teach the kids responsibility. So she had relented, she had let them bring home a little puppy who Rickon had named Shaggydog. He was an ugly thing and he did deserve his name, he was very shaggy.

They did take responsibility for him, just as they had promised. They took turns, played with him, took him for walks, fed him, bathed him. And they were all so happy. Catelyn was okay with it for about two weeks, then the furball started following her around. It annoyed her a lot, that he was always at her heels, looking at her with his large puppy eyes. It didn’t matter what she was doing, he was always there, just watching her. She wasn’t able to stand it, she was barely able to stand the dog even when it was not around her. It just haired. Everything in her house was covered in doghair and she hated it. He had only been there for a month and still he had managed to take over the whole house. And he made so much noice. Howling and barking at nothing. Every morning she woke and wondered why she had ever allowed them to take the fur demon into her home. She also wondered why they had not asked for a cat, it would have been so much nicer. She would have actually liked the pet.

The drop that made the goblet spill over was when she woke in the middle of the night to find the shaggy thing by her bedside. For a moment she considered to throw him out the window. Unfortunately it was generally quite frowned upon to throw your kids’s pet out a window, so she couldn’t really do that. She refused to acknowledge that she was in no way capable of murdering an, mostly innocent, animal.

“How did you even get in?” she whispered angrily.

She looked over at the door, noticed that it wasn’t closed. Ned had not closed it properly when he came in. Damn him.

She climbed out of the bed and pushed the dog out of the room, closing the door between them. The furry bastard just started scratching at the door, a sound so incredibly annoying that she could feel herself going crazy. Catelyn just stood there and stared at the door, tried to control her anger. The dog just wouldn’t stop.

The noice woke her husband too.

“Cat? What are you doing?” he asked, his voice hoarse with sleep. “And what is that noise?”

“It’s the dog” she responded.

“Let him in then.”

Catelyn laughed despite her anger.

“Let him in? Let him– I just got him out! I don’t want that thing in my room!”

“He won’t do anything and we need to sleep, just let him in.”

“No.”

It was dark in the room so she couldn’t see his face, but she heard his sigh. And she could imagine how he looked at her. Maybe she was being unreasonable. Or she wasn’t, she had not wanted that dog and it had no reason to be in her room. Why couldn’t he sleep with one of the kids? She had five of them, there was no lack for other rooms to sleep in. Sansa had a little basket by the end of her bed where the dog was supposed to sleep, surely that was nicer than the floor?

“Cat, we cannot have this going on for the rest of the night. Let the dog in.”

“I hate you and I hate the bloody dog” she mumbled as she opened the door again, letting the foul creature in once more.

The dog would most certainly completely ruin her morning. And the rest of the night. She walked back to the bed, slipped beneath the covers once more and felt how Ned wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him. She snuggled back against his chest as he buried his face in her hair.

She laid awake, listened to how the beast snuffed around the room. He sounded awful even when he was fairly quiet.

“It’s not too bad, is it?” Ned said after a while.

“His presence bothers me” she said. “Why does he have to be in our room? He’s not our dog.”

“He likes you.”

“And I don’t like him.”

“Deep down, you do like him.”

“I don’t. I really don’t. I’ve never gotten along with dogs. Do you remember the one Brandon had? I swear to the gods, Ned, she planned to murder me.”

She still shivered whenever she thought of the dog Brandon had had when they met. That dog had been evil all the way through and it had been easy to tell.

Ned laughed at that and she heard how the dog stopped moving. But quickly he continued his investigation of the room.

“Cat. That dog hated everyone except for Brandon. Not all dogs are like that. most are very friendly, actually.”

“Not to me.”

“And what has Shaggydog done to you, my love?”

She didn’t really have a good answer to that.

***

Catelyn Stark woke the next morning to the sensation of her husband nuzzling at her neck. For a moment she kept her eyes closed, just lost herself in the feeling of his mouth on her soft skin.

“Morning” she mumbled.

“Morning.”

His hot breath sent a shiver down her spine and she twisted in his arms so that they were face to face. He kissed her and pulled her closer to him. She could feel his hands on her back, one was going up into her hair and the other traveled downwards. What a pleasant way to start the day.

Then she felt something at her feet and broke the kiss in confusion. Only to see the ugly puppy standing on the bed.

“Oh my gods” she whispered in barely contained anger.

She freed herself from Ned, picked up the puppy and walked out of the bedroom with it in her arms.

“Robb, get here!” she shouted. “Now!”

It took a minute, but then the door to Robb’s room opened and he peeked out. His hair was one great mess and he blinked in the light that poured in from the large window at the end of the corridor.

“What is it?” he asked irritated and squinted at her. “Please, Mom, you can’t start yelling before nine at a weekend, people are sleeping.”

“You should be up taking responsibility for your dog” she responded. “You have to get the thing away from me, I’m going crazy!”

“He has a name.”

“I don’t care, just keep him out of my bedroom.”

Robb looked at her with a bright smile, walked over to her and took the dog from her, kissing it between the ears. The dog barked happily and responded by twisting in Robb’s arms and licking him in the face.

Catelyn pulled a face, how could anyone look that happy with a dog’s tongue in their face? It could have been anywhere, dogs were not very hygienic.

“He likes you” he said, just like Ned had said the night before.

“Well, I don’t like him.”

“What has he done to you, Mom?”

She couldn’t really admit to her son that she got cockblocked by his puppy. But maybe he understood that anyway because Ned laughed from behind her.

”Come on, give him a chance, he’s kind!”

“It doesn’t matter if I like him or not, he’s not my dog.”

“No, but you can’t walk around and be mad about the dog. He’s going to be around for a while, you know?”

Unfortunately, Robb had a valid point. The dog would be around for a while. The earliest it would be out was when Robb moved out. There was still at least two years left until that and he would have to fight his siblings for the right to bring the dog with him to wherever he moved.

“I’ll try to get used to him, just give me some time” she muttered.

“Promise me you’ll try to like him” Robb said, sounding a lot like his father.

“I said I’ll try to get used to him, not that I’ll try to like him!”

“Promise your son that you’ll try to like the puppy!” Ned called from within the room.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Cat, I know you’re stubborn as an ox, but you should consider standing back on this. The poor little fella hasn’t done anything and he’ll live with us for years.”

Damn him.

“Fine!” she sighed. “I’ll try to like the puppy.”

“Look at how happy he is now!” Robb said and smiled again.

The dog was watching her with his big eyes. He did look happy. She tried to tell herself that it just appeared to be that way because Robb had told her so. The dog couldn’t possibly understand what they were saying. But she couldn’t quite convince herself. Maybe he was a bit cute, after all.

“You already like him, don’t you?” Robb teased.

“I don’t!” Catelyn said and looked away from Shaggydog.

“I could see the way you looked at him!”

“No!”

“What are you talking about so loudly?”

Arya had poked her head out from her room. She seemed to have been fully awake for a while. She had always been an early riser, she had that after her father.

“Mom won’t admit she likes Shaggydog!”

“I don’t like Shaggydog.”

Arya smiled too.

“I’ve never heard you say his name before” she said. “I think you do like him.”

Catelyn sighed and held her hands up in the air.

“Believe whatever you want, but that’s not true.”

“Sure” Ned said.

She glared at him over her shoulder.

“Don’t encourage them.”

“Yes, darling.”

***

“Mom, I really need to meet up with Myrcella to finish a project for school, could you please take Shaggy for a walk?” Arya shouted, and Catelyn suspected she was already halfway out the door.

She didn’t have that much of a choice, did she? The dog needed to be walked even though none of the kids were at home. Of course she could tell Arya that she had to do it before – she heard the door close with a bang. She could not tell Arya to do it before she left.

She sighed and put aside her book, glanced at the clock on the wall. There was at least two hours until Ned would be home. He had went over to Robert to help him move into his new apartment, his wife had just began the process of divorcing him. And all the kids were with friends and wouldn’t be home until it was time for dinner. A walk wouldn’t be too bad, Catelyn supposed. She looked over at Shaggydog, who laid by the fireplace with his head on his paws. He had taken a liking to the rug in front of it.

She pushed herself up from her cozy spot on the couch.

“Should we go for a walk?” she asked him.

Not that he had much of a choice, but it felt better to ask him first. He immediately lifted his head and looked back at her, wagging his tail. Catelyn caught herself smiling at him.

“Come on, then.”

Shaggydog leapt up and walked by her side to the hall. He had grown quite large by then, but she had a feeling of that he still wasn’t finished. She wondered what breed it was. She had no knowledge about any of that, she had never really understood dogs or why people liked them so much. But she was beginning to understand, at least a little.

The air was clear and cold outside, and little puffs of smoke formed in the air when she breathed. Catelyn had never been very fond of snow, Shaggydog seemed to love it though. He jumped through the snow by the side of the road. Her whole house would smell of wet dog when she came home. She hated the smell of wet dog. But it was amusing to see Shaggydog dive into large drifts of snow and almost disappear, only to burst out in clouds of glittering snow.

“Oi, Stark!”

Catelyn looked up to see Maege Mormont and one of her daughters coming her way with Maege’s two dogs. They looked more like bears then dogs, if she was going to be honest. She thought Shaggydog was quite large, but those things were huge. And Maege had had them for quite a few years.

“Hello, Maege, Alysane” Catelyn greeted them with a smile.

It had been way too long since she last saw the Mormonts. She couldn’t even remember the last time.

“And who’s this little guy?” Maege asked and nodded towards Shaggydog.

“This is Shaggydog. Rickon picked his name. They begged me for a dog, so here I am.”

“Well, he certainly lives up to his name! And he’s so cute!” Alysane said.

She crouched in front of Shaggydog and scratched him behind one ear. Catelyn almost expected him to purr, he looked very satisfied.

“Having a hard time saying no to your kids, Stark?” Maege said.

Had Maege ended up with her dogs because all of her daughters had promised that they would take care of them all on their own? Or was she judging Catelyn for her weakness? She was tempted to ask.

“Not usually, but it was very hard now when the five of them and my husband all wanted the same thing.”

“I guess they worked all their charm” Alysane laughed.

Catelyn had to chuckle.

“I must confess I’m a tired parent and a weak woman, and they’ve never been more persuasive. In the end I couldn’t tell them no.”

“I understand you better than you think. It’s in those moments you wonder why you didn’t stop at two like normal people does” Maege said.

“Finally someone gets it!”

Maege only winked at her.

“We have to rush now, but it was nice seeing you again, Stark. You’ll have to come over some day, it’s been so long since we last saw you.”

“That would be lovely, Maege!”

“I expect to see you soon then. Bye!”

“Bye!”

And so she continued her walk. Shaggydog never seemed to get tired, her just kept on running and playing in the snow. Catelyn couldn’t for her life understand where he got all the energy from, but it was certainly fun to watch. A bit like it had been to see the kids play in the snow when they had been younger. Oh gods, was she thinking of Shaggydog as her child? No, he was not her child. She didn’t even really like him. She was just walking with him because she had to. There was no other reason.

It had began to grow dark outside when they returned to the empty house. And it was getting cold, she was shivering a bit. She hated the cold even more than the snow. And where was Ned when she needed him? So she got a fire burning in the fireplace and then she curled up under a blanket on the couch with her book once more. She wasn’t terribly surprised when Shaggydog jumped up on the couch next to her, what made her surprised was that he laid down with his head in her lap. Her first instinct was to push him away, but she didn’t. It was like he had realized that she was cold and wanted to warm her.

No, the dog was not that smart, she was just imagining things. It really wasn’t good for her to be alone for too long. But she wouldn’t get him of the couch because, no matter what his intentions was, he was keeping her warm. She would just have him there until Ned came home.

So that was how Ned found her when he came home.

“Don’t you dare say a word about this to any of them” she told him. “They’ll be insufferable.”

She loved her children, but she would never hear the end of it if they found out about it.

“Well, look at you, are you sure you don’t like the dog, my love?” he laughed.

She made a face at her husband.

“I don’t like him, he’s just keeping me warm.”

“Am I getting replaced by a dog?”

“No, I actually like you. He’s just here because you weren’t at home.”

“Well, I’m glad you actually like me, this would have been very uncomfortable otherwise. Though I’m afraid you’ll have to keep the dog for a little longer, I need to make dinner for the small army that we have created.”

Ned had always been the one that cooked. She was a pretty good baker, but hopelessly bad at making actual food.

“Come here and kiss me before you make food for our offspring” she smiled.

He gladly did as she told him. But Shaggydog didn’t seem to like it at all. He raised his head and showed his teeth when Ned came close to Catelyn.

“This is a one time thing, don’t get cocky.”

Well, she had promised herself that sleeping with Ned was a one time thing too, because she had felt that she was done with Starks. Then she had ended up in a very happy marriage with five fantastic kids instead, and she was glad for that. Catelyn Stark was not a person who did things only once, on both good and bad.

She looked down at the dog. What was she doing? Something she would regret a week later, if she knew herself.

***

Regret. Catelyn felt deep regret. But the temptation had been too much. He had looked at her like all he wanted was for her to pet him. And she was weak.

Catelyn sat on the floor in her kitchen with both of her hands in Shaggydog’s fur. She couldn’t even remember why she was in the kitchen. It felt like she was comitting an unforgivable sin, even though she was just petting her dog. NO, Shaggydog was not her dog. But he was so cuddly. He needed cuddles. She didn’t have heart enough to not give him his cuddles.

“Mom, what are you doing?”

She was a child who had been caught with her hands in the cookie jar by an adult. Except that adult was her middle son, and the cookie jar was a dog. And she was a grown woman.

“Nothing” she said slowly.

“I can see that” Bran said and raised his eyebrows.

“You saw nothing.”

“Of course. I haven’t seen a thing. There is nothing to see. I just came in here to get the dog because I’m going to take him for a walk and you were not even here.”

“That’s correct.”

Catelyn got up from the floor and started brushing dog hair off her clothes. She was covered in it. How could Shaggydog lose so much hair and still have so much left on his body?

“You realize that what you’re doing is really weird, right?”

“I realize that. But you know your siblings. I can’t admit it to them.”

“I suppose I also heard nothing” Bran smiled.

“Of course you heard nothing, there was nothing to hear.”

“Right. Come on, Shaggy, let’s go for a walk.”

Shaggydog happily bounced after him out of the kitchen and left her there. Bran was right, what she was doing was very strange. And she couldn’t keep on doing it forever.

***

It had been a very long day and Catelyn just wanted to shut down completely. opened the door and almost tripped over Shaggydog. He had made it a habit to sit by the door and wait for her to come home after work. Surely there were more interesting things to do instead of just sitting by the door and waiting, but that was what he chose to do. Catelyn really couldn’t understand it, but maybe that was just how dogs worked.

“Hello, boy” she mumbled and petted his head, as she did every day.

“Mom?”

Sansa had appearently also been waiting for her.

“Yes?”

“Where’s the dog food?”

What was she talking about?

“What?”

Sansa sighed and ran a hand through her hair, a gesture that made her look a lot like Ned. Catelyn had to hold back a smile. People often commented on that Sansa had her looks, but the girl was her father’s daughter.

“My phone was out of battery, and so I asked Robb to call you so that you could buy more dog food on your way home” she said in a very irritated voice.

“I’m sorry, but Robb hasn’t called me.”

“I fucking knew he wouldn’t do it” Sansa muttered.

“Language, young lady” Catelyn said.

“Sorry. I’m gonna call Dad.”

“Do so.”

Catelyn believed that the conversation would end there, but it didn’t.

“Does he wait for you every day?” Sansa asked.

“Who?”

“Shaggy.”

“Yes. Most days he waits for me.”

Her daughted frowned, once more looking very much like her father.

“He never waits for me. Why does he like you so much?”

“I have no idea.”

Catelyn really did have no idea. She had been the only one that had not wanted him in the first place and while she had warmed up to him she still wasn’t overly happy about having him in her home. Her kids adored him and still he preferred her. He was a strange creature.

“It’s unfair.”

“Oh I would give it away if I could.”

“Yeah, sure.”

It was true. Mostly true, at least.

***

Catelyn hated it when Ned was away. But unfortunately he had to travel with his work, and so she found herself alone at night more often than she would have liked. The bed was a bit too large for her taste when she didn’t have someone to share it with.

Shaggydog had followed her around all nigth as he always did. He had sat by the door when she came home from work and since then he had only left her side once and that was when Sansa forced him to go outside. He had needed it, but still he had struggled and whined.

She had gotten used to that Shaggydog sometimes slept by her bedside, it was just the way it was. He had grown so much that she couldn’t push him out if he didn’t go willingly anymore. So she wasn’t even a little surprised when he came trotting into the bedroom that night as she came out of the bathroom.

“Good evening” she said without even thinking of it.

He was a dog and couldn’t answer her, but she had developed a habit of talking to him when no one was around. Was she a little crazy? Maybe.

He yawned, stretching his tongue out.

“Tired, are we? Well, it’s been a long day. Not that you’ve done much, but I certainly have.”

Catelyn loved being a teacher, but sometimes parents could be insufferable. Their little angels could never do anything wrong and everything was always Catelyn’s fault, no matter what it was that had happened. Of course most parents were very nice and a joy to talk with. But she wanted to duct tape the mouths those who were rude to her for no reason while she had to be very polite even though she wanted to scream.

“Be glad you don’t need a job” she muttered as she sat on the edge of the bed.

Though Shaggydog did not come to lie at floor beside the bed. She couldn’t even see him anymore. Where had he gone? She looked around the room for a moment. And then she almost had a heart attack when he leapt up on the bed behind her.

“Gods be good, you could have given me a warning!”

He didn’t even look at her, he just spun around and made himself comfortable on Ned’s side of the bed.

“Hey, you’re not suppposed to be in the bed!”

She had been very hard on that rule, because he was way too large to get up on the furniture and she had no wish to get doghair in her bed. The dog didn’t seem to care the slightest about that. She found that deep down she didn’t really care either in that moment. It was not like that side was taken, he could sleep there while Ned was away. If something it was nice with a bit of company, she had never liked sleeping alone.

“As long as you don’t tell Ned” she said and smiled.

That night she fell asleep scratching Shaggydog behind one ear. Yeah, she did like the dog. Very much.

***

“Catelyn?”

“Yes?”

“What is this?”

She looked up at her husband and smiled.

“What do you mean, my love?” she asked.

“I thought we had agreed on no dogs in the bed.”

They had agreed on no dogs in the bed, and she had been the one that insisted on it. But she had a very cuddly dog who enjoyed to lie next to her. And she didn’t have heart to push him down.

“He’s not doing any harm, is he?”

“I would like to go to bed.”

“But he was here first” she chuckled.

Ned scowled.

“I’ve been your husband for nineteen years!”

“Fair point.”

He raised his head from his paws and looked at her like he knew that she was about to betray him for her beloved husband of more than nineteen years. She scratched him between his ears and kissed his nose.

“You need to get down, Shaggy.”

He did do as she said, but only after giving her his best sad eyes.

“He never listens to me that quickly” Ned muttered as he replaced the dog next to her and pulled her into his arms.

“He listens if you say it nicely” Catelyn responded as she made herself comfortable against him.

Shaggy jumped up on the bed again, but curled up by the foot of the bed instead, making himself as small as he could. Good thing they had a large bed.

“Look, all three of us fit” she said.

Shaggy glared at Ned. He didn’t like sleeping at the foot of the bed, he much preferred to have more space.

“I really hope you would have chosen me over Shaggy if only two of us had fit.”

“I just chose you over Shaggy, didn’t I?”

“You hesitated” he chuckled.

She raised her head and kissed him.

“I love you, I promise.”

“I’ll have to take you for your word then.”

***

“Hi, buddy! Have you missed me? Yeah, I’ve missed you too!”

Had someone told Catelyn a year and a half earlier when they got Shaggy that she would greet the dog before her husband when she came home after visiting her brother over the weekend, she would have laughed at them. It was ridiculous. But there she was, on the floor, with her arms around her dog. She still had her jacket and her shoes on, and she had barely had time to put down her bag.

“They better have been nice to you when I was away!”

“Are you afraid of that we mistreat him when you’re not at home?”

Ned seemed very amused.

“Well, are you?”

“No. But looking at him when you’re gone one might think otherwise. He’s been miserable.”

“Awww, have you been miserable? My poor baby.”

She kissed Shaggy’s nose.

“Not that it says much, we’re all miserable when you’re away.”

She got up from the floor and laid her arms around Ned instead, pulling him close to her. She had missed him even more than the dog.

“Awww, have you been miserable? My poor darling” she smiled.

“I’m glad you’re home.”

“I’m also glad I’m home.”

She reached up and kissed him, only to be pushed away a moment later. For a second she believed it was Ned, and was deeply offended, but then she realized that it was the dog.

She couldn’t help her laugh. Shaggy just demanded more and more of her attention. And he was getting a bit too confident for his own good.

“We’ve talked about this, Shaggy! You can’t do that!” she exclaimed.

Shaggy had sat down between them. At least he wasn’t growling, that had happened a couple of times.

“Well, he’s not sleeping in our bedroom today” Ned muttered. “What’s with that dog?”

She laughed again.

“Do you hear that, boy? You are not ruining that for me.”

He had ruined that for her. More than once. And Ned was just as irritated about it every time. She could understand him, but she still found it more amusing than anything else.

“Oh he better not. Tonight I want you for myself.”

She smiled at her husband.

“No need to worry.”

***

“Are you crying?” Jon asked.

“Yes!”

They were taking her baby from her. It was just a week, sure, but she could barely remember when she had last been separated from Shaggy for that long.

“Mom” Robb sighed. “He’s a dog.”

“I know he’s a dog.”

She sat on the floor with Shaggy almost in her lap and she couldn’t see Robb and Jon behind the mountain of fur. They were going fishing for a week and had decided that taking Shaggy with them was a good idea because he needed to something other than their town.

“Some nature will do him good. Right, Shaggy?” Jon said.

Shaggy didn’t answer him.

“There’s nature here. Lots of nature” Catelyn muttered. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we live right next to a forest. And Shaggy doesn’t want to leave.”

She and Ned took Shaggy for walks in the forest as often as they could. There was no lack of nature in that dog’s life.

“Yes, he does. He just doesn’t know it yet” Ned said. “There will be no problem at all. He’ll be perfectly happy.”

Ned had been looking forward to it since the moment Robb and Jon told them that they intended to take Shaggy with them on their trip.

“But I’ll miss him!”

“You know, sometimes I think that you love the dog more than you love me.”

“That’s not true. I love you equally.”

Ned laughed.

“I can’t believe I’m such a failure for a husband that I’m on the same level as our pet.”

Catelyn rolled her eyes.

“Now you’re just being dramatic!”

“Because that comes from the right person” he said and nodded towards her.

She stretched out her tongue at him, but actually got up from the floor. The look Shaggy gave her made her heart ache. Why could none of them see that he didn’t want to go on a fishing trip? He wanted to stay at home.

“Have you given him a proper goodbye now?” Robb asked. “No, wait, don’t answer that. We’re gonna leave now no matter what. Come on, Shaggy.”

She stood out on the porch together with Ned and watched as Shaggy trotted after Robb and Jon towards the car. She would miss him very much, but she supposed that it wouldn’t do him any harm.

“Have a nice trip” she said before Robb got into the driver’s seat.

“See you in a week! Bye!”

“Bye!”

Ned laid an arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head.

“I think this will be good for you” he said.

“It will be good for you, at least” she chuckled and leaned against him. “I know he’s been driving you mad lately.”

“I wouldn’t say mad, but I don’t like sharing my wife. Or my bed.”

Catelyn smiled and looked up at him.

“And now you’ll have your side of the bed to yourself and my undivided attention for a whole week.”

The kids were only home for meals and during the nights during the summers. They left in the mornings, came back for dinner, left again, and then came home when it started to get dark. So she had nothing else that she needed to focus on.

He kissed her again, on the lips that time.

“Whatever will I do with so much power?” he said when he pulled away from her.

“I have an idea or two” she said.

It would actually be quite nice to be able to close the door to their bedroom without having to endure a howling dog outside. Because that was what he did when he wanted to get in and they didn’t let him immediately. He howled so that it was easy to believe he had suffered a terrible injury.

“Is it too early to go to bed yet?” Ned asked and she felt how his arm around her waist tightened slightly.

“Definitely. But there’s no one at home to judge us.”

“So what do you say?”

“I say that I would like you to take me to bed.”


End file.
